Early life

In February, 1996, al-Shehhi enrolled in a language institute in Bonn, Germany. He boarded with a local family. It took two years for him to learn enough German before he enrolled in a university with a military scholarship. According to some reports, he received a Florida driver's license in 1997.[2] He spent several months in 1998 trying to pass a language exam in Hamburg, but returned to Bonn after he failed.

Terrorist career

Al-Shehhi moved to Hamburg in 1999, and helped form the Hamburg cell with Mohammed Atta and Ramzi Binalshibh. There, his views became more and more radical. They met three or four times a week to discuss anti-American feelings and plot possible attacks. When someone asked why he and Atta never laughed, Al-Shehhi retorted, "How can you laugh when people are dying in Palestine?"[3] Al-Shehhi committed himself to fighting and dying for his beliefs.

In October 1999 Marwan al-Shehhi was filmed at Said Bahaji's wedding in Germany with other 9/11 hijackers including Ziad Jarrah.[4]

In late 1999, al-Shehhi, Atta, Ziad Jarrah, Said Bahaji, and Ramzi Binalshibh decided to travel to Chechnya to fight against the Russians, but were convinced by Khalid al-Masri and Mohamedou Ould Slahi at the last minute to change their plans. They instead traveled to Afghanistan to meet with Osama bin Laden and train for terrorist attacks. Immediately afterwards, Atta, al-Shehhi, and Jarrah reported their passports stolen, possibly to erase travel visas to Afghanistan.

After their training, the hijackers began to attempt to hide their radicalism. Al-Shehhi shaved his beard and seemed to his old friends like he had become less religious. After the attacks, a librarian in Hamburg reported that al-Shehhi boasted to her "There will be thousands of dead. You will think of me ... You will see, in America something is going to happen. There will be many people killed."[5][6][7]

Al-Shehhi returned to Germany in March 2000, and began to learn to fly a jet. Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, one of the most important 9/11 financial organizers, bought a Boeing 747flight simulator program using al-Shehhi's credit card. Eventually they decided that German flight schools would not work for them, and they decided to train in the United States.

Advertisements

The September 11 Attacks

Flight education and preparation

Al-Shehhi was the first of the Hamburg group to leave for the United States. He arrived in Newark, New Jersey on May 29, 2000. Mohammed Atta joined him the next month, and the two began to search for flight schools. Al-Shehhi posed as a body guard of a "Saudi Arabian royal family member" (really Atta) while the two of them took flying lessons in Venice, Florida. They also logged hundreds of hours on a Boeing 727 flight simulator. They received their licenses by December 2000. Their expenses were paid for by Ali Abdul Aziz Ali. On either December 26 or 27, Atta and Marwan abandoned a Piper Cherokee that had stalled on the runway of Miami International Airport. On December 29, Atta and Marwan went to the Opa-Locka Airport and practiced on a Boeing 727 simulator.

Al-Shehhi traveled to Morocco to reassure his family that he was well, and then returned to the U.S. He and Atta visited Virginia and Georgia for unknown reasons, and then returned to Florida. They moved into an apartment together. Al-Shehhi traveled to Cairo, Egypt, on April 18, 2001, meeting with Atta's father to get Atta's international driver's license. He returned on May 2. He began to take "surveillance flights" in the summer, watching the operations of flight crews and making final preparations.

In mid July 2001, some of the hijackers and members of the Hamburg cell gathered near Salou, Spain, for a period of a few days up to a couple of weeks. Since hotel records are sparse during some of that time, it is thought that they may have spent considerable time in and around safe houses related to the al-Qaeda leader in Spain, Imad Yarkas. After 9/11, Spanish investigators followed the trails backwards, and the events they uncovered were chronicled in the Spanish nationwide newspaper El País. Witnesses told Spanish investigators they saw a man who resembled Al-Shehhi on July 17, 2001 at the Universal StudiosPort Aventura theme park next to Salou, Spain. The visitor, who was accompanied by two men, inquired about rides at the customer service counter. Witnesses indicated these companions resembled Ziad Jarrah, the later pilot on United Airlines Flight 93, and Said Bahaji, a then 26-year-old German-Moroccan member of the al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg. Back in Germany, it had been Bahaji's 1999 wedding during which Al-Shehhi was filmed. Other witnesses elsewhere had pointed out Bahaji from photos, as one of the men they saw in Spain. But Bahaji also bore a resemblance in appearance to Mohamed Atta, who was traced to the same areas in Spain through his hotel and travel records.

On August 23, IsraeliMossad reportedly gave his name to the CIA as part of a list of 19 names they say are planning an attack in the near future. Only four of the names are known for certain - Nawaf, Atta, Marwan and al-Mihdhar.[8][9]

Marwan's motel registration

On August 26, Marwan signed into the Panther Motel in Deerfield Beach, Florida, paying $500 USD, saying he wanted to stay until September 2, and listing a Mailboxes Etc. as his permanent address. His register entry indicated that he was driving a blue ChevroletMalibu, assumed to be the one rented by Atta two weeks prior, and manager Richard Surma said that he bent rules to allow Marwan to have another man as an overnight guest. On August 28, Marwan went to the Miami International Airport, accompanied by an unknown man, where he purchased his ticket for Flight 175.[10] On September 9, the motel manager cleaning the room al-Shehhi had vacated found a bag containing a German/English dictionary, a protractor, flight manuals and local airport listings. Another employee later reported finding a box cutter.

According to librarian Kathleen Hensmen, Wail al-Shehri and Waleed al-Shehri used Internet access at Delray Beach Public Library in August, 2001, where they may have been looking at information on crop dusting. They reportedly left the library with a third middle-eastern man, thought to be Marwan al-Shehhi, whom Hensmen claimed asked her for the name of a local restaurant.

Staff at Shuckum's Oyster Bar claimed they recognized both Atta and Marwan as two of the people who had been at the restaurant on either September 7 or 8. While there are varying stories about Atta's activities, all sources indicate that al-Shehhi drank rum and coke while talking to the others.

On September 10, 2001, al-Shehhi was one of four hijackers (Marwan, Banihammad, Mohand, and al-Suqami) sharing a room at the Milner Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, where one of them called around for prostitutes, but eventually nixed the idea, possibly based on finances.

Carrying out the attack

According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Mohammed Atta called al-Shehhi at 6:45am on September 11. This is thought to have been a final confirmation that the attacks were ready to begin.

He boarded Flight 175 around 7:25 am. About a half an hour into the flight, the plane was hijacked. Al-Shehhi is believed to have taken control of the plane and directed it to New York City. The plane flew into the south tower of World Trade Center in a coordinated attack that killed 2,974 people.